Acoustic Blues Guitar Lessons - Jim Bruce

What Kind Of Acoustic Guitar Is Best For The Blues?

It might be with you for some years - play the blues with the right guitar!

There great videos on Youtube presenting classic blues men
giving amazing performances using very ordinary acoustic guitars, like
Mississipi Fred McDowell using a low end Eko model. Od course, when the probably used a
cheap Stellar or smething similar, bought from the Sears catalog (just like Elizabeth Cotton did)
or some second hand store.For me, my favorite guitar that I
used when I first started to play in public for money was a parlor sized
Yamaha constructed out of plywood. It had a good sound and played
pretty well, which is just
what I wanted at that time.

Are we saying that the quality of the guitar has no impact on performance?

Of
course guitar quality impacts the overall sound, but you should assess
the relevance of the
difference for your own personal case. The differences in sound quality
when
comparing a $500 guitar and a $2000 guitar is not that great nowadays,
particularly taking into account the affordable, reasonable quality
guitars coming out of China.

Ignoring differences in sound
quality, the other big question
is 'is it easy to play?'. The top end 'fabricated by hand' guitars are
better and easier to handle. However, you can play the same way with a
less expensive guitar, but you'll have to work just a little harder at
it. Additionally, generally the harmonics and sustain using cheaper
guitars isn't as good.